Bedmates Soulmates

apology.

Was this her way of saying som

The food still smelled delicious, but Austyn had lost his appetite.

He hated it when people played games like this.

If she wanted to apologise, she should say it with words, not food

Hetossed the chicken thigh back into the box and dumped the whole thing into the waste paper basket.

But another bento box appeared on his desk at noon the next day, and the day after that, and after that.

The contents of the box varied, but it would inevitably come with a note attached, with the woman's handwritten reminder for him to eat on time Austyn didn't eat the food and threw away the note each time.

Then one day, he waited till ten minutes past noon and telt something was amiss.

samantha entered his office. 'Mr Taylor, it's lunchtime. Would you like me to

Austyn checked the time.

me to ouder in?'

The bento box was always delivered at twelve o'clock on the dot in the past week

Where was it?

"No delivery today?" he asked the secretary with a stem face

Samantha was nooplussed. "Uh, Mr Taylor, I thought you didn't like the food."

Every timesheet down the box on his deck, she would see it reappear in the waste paper badet, unopened.

When she asked, Mr Taylor ordered her to tell the woman to stop sending lich to the company

But the woman was persistent

After Samantha relayed the vice president's message to her, she showed up the very next day with yet another bento box.

Samantha tookpity on her and told her that Mr Taylor never touched the food.

But the woman just shrugged and carried on undeterred.

Austyn dismissed the secretary.

He waited another hour, but there was still no bento box.

He stared at his contacts for a long time and finally called Miss Hewitt.

'Sorry, the number you have dialled is enavallable. Please try again later.'

Austyn tried two more times and got the same result

He resisted the urge to ting the phone across the room

He pushed back his chair and paced in the office, tossing annoyed glances at his phone and the spot on the desk where the bento box usually sar. Then be paused

What was he doing?

Hadn't he decided to keep his distance from that woman?

Duncan, the private investigator, had yet to give him a port..

He did call, however, and told him that the events of four years ago in Stamford seemed to have been hushed up.

The McCarthy family did wield inmense power in the city.

A Foul Mood

Duncan received two messages in just two days, both waming him to backoff.

He had not given up yet, but he told Austyn the investigation was going to take some time.

Austyn grew wary and decided to keep the Hewitt woman at arm's length.

No doubt, his past contained secrets.

And the scars on his body were a constant reminder of potential danger.